Li Hejun, once China’s richest man, gets approval from shareholders to take troubled Hanergy unit private
- Hanergy Thin Film’s shares were suspended four years ago when they suddenly shed about half their value in an hour
- The firm’s chairman, Li Hejun, was banned from being a director in 2017, for failing to disclose loans between the Hong Kong-listed unit and its parent
Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, the company whose stunning stock market performance once made its chairman the richest man in China, will be delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange next month after shareholders approved plans to take it private.
The company said in a filing to the exchange on Sunday that 97.25 per cent of shareholders had voted in favour of the privatisation scheme in a shareholder meeting a day earlier. The vote gives the green light for the firm to delist on June 11, and paves the way for the next phase of Hanergy’s plan – to relist the unit in mainland China.
The local bourse in August last year introduced a rule that companies suspended for more than 18 months would be delisted. Hanergy Thin Film, which has been suspended for almost four years since falling foul of regulators, was given 12 months from the introduction of the rule because of its protracted suspension.
It put forward the privatisation and A-share relisting plan as an alternative, so that existing shareholders could see their shares allowed to continue to trade.
It will close another chapter in the rags-to-riches story of renewable energy tycoon Li Hejun, who was ranked by the Hurun Report as the country's wealthiest man in 2015 with US$26 billion to his name thanks to a meteoric rise in Hanergy’s share price.
But it all came crashing down when Hanergy was suspended from trading in May 2015 and faced an investigation by the Securities and Futures Commission. According to last year’s Hurun Report, Li’s fortune had shrunk to an estimated US$4.34 billion, placing him 89th in the list he once topped.